Farm Service Agency Emergency Loans Available to 207 Disaster Counties in Texas

COLLEGE STATiON January 17, 2013 - USDA Texas Farm Service Agency (FSA) Acting Executive Director James B. Douglass announced that 207 counties in Texas were declared a disaster on January 9, 2013, due to drought and heat using the new, streamlined Secretarial Disaster Designation process. Under this designation, producers with operations in any of the 157 primary disaster counties or 50 contiguous disaster counties are eligible to apply for low interest emergency loans.

The streamlined disaster designation process issues a drought disaster declaration when a county has experienced a drought intensity value of at least a D2 (severe drought) level for eight consecutive weeks based on the U.S. Drought Monitor during the crop year. Under this declaration 157 counties in Texas have reached that threshold since November 1, 2012.

The following 157 counties were designated as primary disaster counties:

Andrews

Dallas

Hartley

La Salle

Archer

Dawson

Haskell

Limestone

Armstrong

Deaf Smith

Hemphill

Lipscomb

Bailey

Delta

Hidalgo

Live Oak

Bandera

Denton

Hill

Lubbock

Baylor

De Witt

Hockley

Lynn

Bee

Dickens

Hood

McLennan

Bell

Dimmit

Hopkins

McMullen

Borden

Donley

Hudspeth

Maverick

Bosque

Duval

Hunt

Menard

Bowie

Eastland

Hutchinson

Milam

Briscoe

Edwards

Jack

Mills

Brooks

Ellis

Jeff Davis

Mitchell

Brown

El Paso

Jim Hogg

Montague

Burnet

Erath

Jim Wells

Moore

Callahan

Falls

Johnson

Motley

Cameron

Fannin

Jones

Navarro

Carson

Fisher

Karnes

Nolan

Castro

Floyd

Kaufman

Nueces

Childress

Foard

Kendall

Ochiltree

Clay

Freestone

Kenedy

Oldham

Cochran

Gaines

Kent

Palo Pinto

Collin

Garza

Kerr

Parker

Collingsworth

Gillespie

Kimble

Parmer

Comanche

Goliad

King

Potter

Cooke

Gray

Kinney

Presidio

Coryell

Grayson

Kleberg

Rains

Cottle

Hale

Knox

Randall

Crockett

Hall

Lamar

Real

Crosby

Hamilton

Lamb

Red River

Culberson

Hansford

Lampasas

Refugio

Dallam

Hardeman

Roberts

Robertson

Rockwall

San Patricio

San Saba

Schleicher

Scurry

Shackelford

Sherman

Somervell

Starr

Stephens

Stonewall

Sutton

Swisher

Tarrant

Taylor

Terrell

Terry

Throckmorton

Val Verde

Webb

Wheeler

Wichita

Wilbarger

Willacy

Williamson

Wise

Yoakum

Young

Zapata

The following 50 counties were designated as contiguous disaster counties:

Anderson

Comal

Llano

Sterling

Aransas

Concho

McCulloch

Titus

Atascosa

Crane

Madison

Tom Green

Bastrop

Ector

Martin

Travis

Bexar

Franklin

Mason

Upton

Blanco

Frio

Medina

Uvalde

Brazos

Gonzales

Midland

Van Zandt

Brewster

Henderson

Morris

Victoria

Burleson

Howard

Pecos

Wilson

Calhoun

Irion

Reagan

Winkler

Cass

Lavaca

Reeves

Wood

Coke

Lee

Runnels

Zavala

Coleman

Leon

"The disaster designation is welcome relief to producers because it allows all qualified operators in primary and contiguous counties to apply for a low interest emergency (EM) loan," said Douglass.

Emergency loans help producers recover from production and physical losses due to drought, flooding and other natural disasters or quarantine.

Producers have eight months from the date of the declaration to apply for emergency loan assistance. FSA will consider each loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of losses, security available and repayment ability. Producers can borrow up to 100 percent of actual production or physical losses, to a maximum amount of $500,000. The current emergency loan interest rate is 2.25 percent.

Producers with operations in counties that did not receive a disaster designation could be eligible for emergency loan assistance if they suffered at least a 30 percent loss in crop production or a physical loss to livestock, livestock products, real estate or chattel property.

For more information about emergency loans, please contact your local FSA office or visit www.fsa.usda.gov.